Oil prices continue to dip, closing at around $65 a barrel Friday, as the industry awaits another decision by OPEC.
Texas crude oil production jumped to a record 4.2 million barrels a day back in March. Total U.S. output in March jumped to 10.47 million barrels a day, but there's word OPEC may start to flood the market to meet demand.
“We've seen oil prices come down modestly in the last week-and-a-half as rumors have begun to swirl that OPEC may raise oil production in the weeks ahead,” says Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy.com.
“The glut of crude oil is gone, U.S. oil inventories are over 75 million barrels lower than where they were a year ago,” he says. “Global oil inventories that had previously been at glut status are back down to the five-year average.”
DeHaan believes prices at the pump should start to stabilize heading into July.
“You look for an equilibrium between oil producers being happy and motorists being happy with the price of gas online, and I would gas that's probably a little lower than where prices stand today,” he says. “I would say a national average of somewhere between $2.50 and $2.75 a gallon.”